The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-11-04
MANkAro FREE Pass
raInaT NoTnNanR 4 nm
DEFENSE OF YOUNG MEN.
DIVINE SERVICES IN THE BROOK
LYN TABERNACLE.

starting In LIFe--No Way 10 Genuine
Success Except Through Toll OF Either
Head ar Hand.
BROOKLYN, Oct 3O.-Six thousand people,
sitting and standing In the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle, and all the adjoining rooms packed
and people turned away Such was the scene
today. The congregation sang:
Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve,
Aud press with yigor on.
The Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.,
preached ON the subject; Defense Of Young
Men, and took his text from II Kings vi, II;
'And the Lord opened the eyes of the young
man. lie said:
| One morning in Dothan a young theology
cal ssuac:.5 was scared by finding himself and
| Elisha, the prophet, upon whom he waited,
sulroaaae-. by whole army of enemies But
venerable Elisha was not scared at all. be-
cause he saw the mountains full Of defense
| for hia, in ehariots made out Of fire, wheels
of fire, dashboard of fire and cushions Of fire,
| drawn by horses with nostrils of fire, and
'S--nes OF fire, and launches Of fire, and hoofs
| of fire-a supernatural appearance that could
not be seen with the natural eye. So the old
| minister prayed that the young minister
might see them also, aud the prayer was an
swered, and the Lord opened the eyes of the
| young man and he also saw the fiery process
sion, looking somewhat, ! sulnE=>=-s, li'.- sshc
9;S.::--SS1itiacks or the Alleghanies in this au-
tumnal resplendence.
Many young men, standing among the
most tremendous realities, have their eyes
| half shut or entirely closed. May God grant
that my sermon may open wide your eyes to
| you Rafety, your opportunity and your des-
tiny.
A mighty defense for young man Is q
| good home. Some Of my hearers look back
with tender satisfaction to their early home.
1t may have been rude and rustic, hidden
among the hills, and architect or upholsterer
never planned or adorned it. But all the
fresco on princely walls never looked 30 en-
ticing to you as those rough hewn rafters.
You can think Of no park or arbor of trees
| planted on fashionable country seat so at
| tractive as the plain brook that ran in front
of the old farmhouse and sang under
the weeping willows. No barred gateway,
adorned with statue Of bronze, and swung
open by obsequious porter in full dress, has
half the glory of the swing gate. Many Of
you have a second dwelling place, your
adopted home, that also is sacred forever.
| There you built the first family altar There
| 1OuT "6T6 DOTn- ALI LQOS6 GF0eB
| you planted. That room is solemn, because
once in it, over the hot pillow, tapped the
wing of death. Under that roof you expect
| when your work is done to lie down and die.
You try with many words to tell the excel
lency of the place, but you fail. There isonly
one word in the language that can describe
your meaning. 1t is home.
Now, declare it that young man is COM
paratively safe who goes out into the world
with charm like this upon him. The mem
DRY of parental soicitude, watching, plan
ming and praying, viii be to him a shield and
a shelter. never knew a man faithful both
to his early and adopted home, who at the
same time was given over to any gross form
of dissipation or wickedness. He who seeks
his enjoyment chiefly from outside associa-
ton, rather than from the more quiet and
unpresuming pleasures of which / have
spoken, may be suspected to be on the broad
| road to ruin. AbSalom despised his fathers
house, and you know his history of sin and
his death of shame. If you seem unneces-
sarily isolated from your kindred and former
associates, is there not some room that you
can call your owni Into it gather books and
pictures and harp. Have a portrait over
the mantel. Make ungodly mirth stand back
from the threshold Consecrate some spot
with the knee of prayer, BY the memory Of
other days, fathers counsel and mothers
love, and sisters confidence, call it home.
Another defense for a young man is indus
trious habit. Many young men, in starting
upon life in this age, expect to make their
way through the world by the use of their
wits rather than the toll Of their hands A
child now goes to the city and fails twice be-
fore he is as old as his father was when he
first saw the spires of the great town. Sit
ting in some Office, rented at 81, 900 year,
he is waiting for the bank to declare its divi-
dend, or goes into the market expecting be-
fore night to be made rich by the rushing up
Of the stocks But luck seemed so dull he re-
solved on some other tack. Perhaps he Dor
rowed from his employers money drawer,
and forgets to put it back, or for merely the
purpose of improving his penmanship makes
copy plate of a merchants signature. Never
mind, all is right in trade. In some dark
night there may come in his dreams a vision
of Blackwell's Island, or of Sing Sing,
but it soon vanishes. In a short time
he will be ready to retire from the busy
world, and amid his focks and herds culture
the domestic virtues Then those young men
who once were his schoolmates, and knew no
better than to engage in honest work, will
and with their hard hands help heave up his
castle. This is no fancy picture. It is every
day life l should not wonder if there were
some rotten beams in that beautiful palace.
should not wonder if dire sicBneSses should
smite through the young man, or If God
should pour into his cup of life a draught
that would thrill him with unbearable agony.
should not wonder if his children should
become to him living curse, making his
home q pest and disgrace. I should not
wonder if he goes to miserable grave, and
beyond it into the crashing of teeth. The
way of the ungodly shall perish,
Ny young friends there is no way to genu-
inc success except through toll either of the
head or hand. At the battle of Crecy in
1346 the prince of Wales, finding himself
heavily pressed by the enemy, sent word to
his father for help. The father, watching
the battle from windmill and seeing that
his son was not wounded and could gain the
day if he would, sent word: "No; / will not
come Let the boy win his spurs, for, If
God will, desire that this day be his with
all its honors." Young man, fight your own
battle all through and you shall have the
victory. Oh, it is battle worth fighting.
Two monarchs of old fought duel, Charles
and Francis, and the stakes were king
doms-Milan and Burgundy. You tlghtwith
sin and the stake is heaven or hell
Do not get the fatal idea that you are a
genius, and that therefore there is no need
of close application. 1t is here where multi
tudes fail The great curse Of this age Is the
geniuscs, men with enormous self conceit and
l'egotisnl, and nothing else. had rather be an
OK than an eagle; plain, and plodding, and
useful, rather than high flying and good for
nothing but to pick out the eyes Of carcasses.
Extraordinary capacity without use is extra
ordinary failure. There is no hope for that
person who begins life resolved to live by
his wits, for the probability is he has not
any. Il was not safe for Adam, even in his
unfaDen state, to have nothing te
do, and, therefore, God commanded
him to be a farmer and horticulturist.
He was to dress the garden and
keep it, and had he and his wife 'obeyed the
divine injunction and been at work, they
| would not have been sauntering under the
trees and hungering after that fruit which
destroyed them and their posterity; proof
positive for all ages to come that those who
do not attend to their business are sure to get
into mischief do not know that the prod
igal in Scripture would ever have been re-
claimed had he not given up his idle habits
and gone to feeding swine for living. "Go
to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways
and be wise, which, having no overseer or
guide, provideth her food in the summer and
gathereth her meat in the harvest" The
devil does not 50 often attack the man who
is busy with the pen, and the book, and the
trowel, and the saw, and the hammer. BE
is afraid of those weapons. But woe to that
man whom this roaring lion meets with his
hands In his pockets. Do not demand
that your toll always be elegant, and
cleanly and refined. There is certain